After all, his father, New Mexico head coach Bob Davie, has been in the coaching game for almost 30 years. But Bob Davie never tried to pressure or persuade his son into becoming a coach.
Instead, Clay Davie found his own way into the coaching world after spending years around it. Earlier this year he accepted an offer to become the tight ends coach for UNM, taking over for the departed Derek Warehime. This is Clay Davie’s first coaching position after being an offensive graduate assistant for the Lobos the past three seasons.
“I think, always being around it all my life, you really start to get hooked on it,” he said. “Just being around it, as unique and special as this, you really get hooked. My dad never really pushed me toward football; I was never forced to do it, and kind of discovered it on my own.”
Even though Clay Davie was never pressured into football, he did follow in his father’s cleatsteps by participating in collegiate ball. Bob Davie started at Youngstown State as a tight end in the 1970s, and Clay Davie played at Arizona State as a long snapper from 2007 to 2009. After his playing career ended, he decided to become a graduate intern at ASU from 2010 to 2011.
“I think playing high school football, and the more levels I got into it and the more and more I got around it, it just escalated from there,” he said. “I think it kind of built when I started playing the college game.”
The one way in which Bob Davie did influence his son’s career was on which side of the ball he would coach.
“I told him, if he’s going to coach, get into that offensive room and get into that offensive side,” Bob Davie said. “It’s a lot more fun than that defensive side.”
Clay Davie acknowledged that the college game has transformed offensively with more spread-out, up-tempo offenses across the country.
“I think that has been validated the more I’ve been around football,” he said. “Sometimes the offensive guys are out a little bit quicker as far as preparation stuff. We are dictating what we want to run, and the defense has to be ready for anything that comes.”
He said he’s had plenty of help from senior tight ends Reece White and Chris Edling in his first spring practice as tight ends coach.
“I hope to just learn as much as I can to build my skills,” Clay Davie said. “This first spring has definitely been a blur. I give credit to guys like Reece over here for how many skills they have to know as tight ends.”
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A great part about being on the same staff as his dad, Clay Davie said, is that this is the most time they’ve spent together.
“You see the hours coaches put in sometimes, and dad wasn’t around that much,” he said. “But now you’re around all the time, and to have that chance is really special and I’m very thankful for that.”
Thomas Romero-Salas is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @ThomasRomeroS.
